When Dragons Rage

63

Alexia stood in the window of her tower chamber, unconcerned that the light behind her silhouetted her for the Aurolani dragonels. She had to admire the Aurolani leader’s calm deliberation. After Kerrigan killed a sullanciri, the city’s mood was jubilant. The Aurolani sent no more sorcerers forth, and the magick duel had been counted a solid victory for Nawal, despite the frightful cost in personnel.

Kerrigan had explained the importance of the pilfered iron ball. Smiths had already shattered it into more than a dozen pieces. Kerrigan and others used them to create spells that would deflect shots directed at the city. Plans were advanced, from shields to loadstones that would concentrate shots in one area. It all sounded promising, and since supplies of firedirt and shot were being cut by Crow or diverted to the siege at Caledo, hopes were high for success.

The Aurolani commander clearly had a different view of the situation, and Alexia could not fault his analysis. As dusk fell, the Aurolani dragonels began to speak. They roared defiantly and spat their iron cargo at Nawal. The waiting sorcerers used their magick to deflect shots and divert them, rendering them all but harmless. Efforts to blast the city were futile.

But the Aurolani commander just stepped up the rate of shots, keeping them flying faster and more furiously. Dragonels went off in volleys. And where a single magicker might have been able to handle a single shot, now he had to choose among a flight of them. The more he tried to deal with, the more strength it required. Balls arced by untouched as exhausted sorcerers collapsed.

Moreover, her opponent’s crews heated the missiles in fires until they glowed cherry red. When one of those shots made it into Nawal and crushed its way through the wall of a house or granary, it ignited whatever it touched. From her vantage point, Alyx could see dozens of little fires burning. With a cadre of magickers, they might have been able to keep the fire in check, but too few magicians were being forced to do too much.

And the shot was not the only weapon employed against the city. Just the constant booming of the weapons was enough to fray nerves. Alexia was awake at midnight because she needed to study what her enemy was doing, but others were awake because they could not sleep. For all they knew a thunderclap was the only warning they had before an iron ball bashed their home into burning splinters.

Already people had begun to stream toward the docks.

Alyx frowned. She was confident that the enemy had neither enough firedirt nor shot to sustain the assault for long, yet their profligate expenditure seemed to contradict that. The commander facing her was a fool, a daredevil, or had more supplies and support coming and was not worrying about running out of charges for his dragonels.

Her obvious strategy for dealing with that problem would be to send a force out to raid his position, but she did not have enough troops to hit the Aurolani hard enough. While they could hold the city in bitter fighting, they were incapable of lifting the siege. Moreover, if she were to charge out with a mounted force aimed at taking the dragonels, a volley by draconetteers or, worse, a leveled volley by the dragonels themselves, would be devastating.

She hated having to sit and wait, but she had no choice. As long as the Aurolani had diverted part of their force here and were using up a lot of supplies, those same troops and supplies were denied the forces closing on Caledo. King Bowmar’s messages from the capital were rather sanguine. He labored under no misapprehensions about Alexia’s being able to hold Nawal. He just wanted her to delay the loss for as long as possible.

A knock came at her door, but before she could turn and invite whoever waited there in, the door opened. Three men and one woman, all of middle age and masked, filed in. They had donned fine clothes and clearly had discarded their cloaks elsewhere—all save Duke Thow, in whose palace she was standing.

The woman, whom Alexia was certain she’d seen before but could not recall, stepped from the group of her fellows and extended a hand. “For the love of the gods, Princess Alexia, you must listen to us.”

The duke grabbed the woman’s other arm and restrained her. “Princess, we regret this interruption, and we mean no disrespect, but we must speak with you.” He nodded toward the window. “As you have seen, the precautions we thought would save us are for naught. The city is burning. People are homeless. People are injured; they are dying.“

“Your city is under siege. Casualties cannot be avoided.”

“Granted, Highness, but we must do something.”

Alexia sighed. “I have been considering that very thing. The Aurolani will cease their shooting. They have not enough supplies to keep it up. Our sorcerers will rest and be able to do more.”

The duke shook his head. “They have too much to do. All the fires…”

She snarled. “Magick is not the only way to deal with fire, my lord. I have detailed troops to help organize firefighting efforts. This will leave our mages free for more important duties, like stopping the enemy.”

Alexia continued, not letting the duke get a word in edgewise. “I have considered a raid, but that would leave us worse off than before. It would sap our strength, so that when they came to take the city we could not oppose them. The slaughter would be unspeakable. Is that what you want?”

The woman tore her arm free of the duke’s grasp. “No, we want to avoid that. This is why we have come to you. We want you to negotiate a surrender.”

“What?”

One of the other men opened his hands. “You said yourself that the Aurolani are not shooting at the walls to preserve them against a counterattack. We could negotiate and let them come into the city. We would let them have it in return for the safety of our citizens. Surely they would see the wisdom of that exchange.”

Alexia snapped her mouth shut, then shook her head. “Do you know what you are saying?”

The woman’s head came up. “It will stop the slaughter.”

“You are insane. I know what it is for a city to be overrun by the Aurolani. Svoin was so poisoned that when it was liberated, it had to be burned. This city is home to twenty thousand souls, thirty perhaps? As it is now, so Svoin once was. When General Adrogans liberated it, fewer than five thousand people remained.”

The duke waved that idea off. “That was after twenty-five years.”

Alyx fixed him with a hard stare. “And you assume someone will come save you before another quarter century has passed?”

“No, we expect the Aurolani will abide by any agreement we make with them.”

“And why would they do that? If you surrender this city and if there were troops around who could rescue you, they’d not waste their time. They would just bottle you up in the city with the Aurolani, and when the gibber-ers ran out of rations, then you’d see just how long your agreement would last.”

The fourth man, a white-haired magistrate, let menace slip into his voice. “We have other things we can turn over to them. Valuable things.”

“Such as?” Alexia’s violet eyes narrowed angrily. “Me? The killer of a sullanciri? What are you saying, Magistrate?”

“You know very well what I am saying.”

“I don’t, Magistrate. Perhaps you’d better tell me!” Sayce stood in the doorway. Pure fury burned through her words. “Are you suggesting you would trade to the enemy two people who have come here of their own accord to save you?”

The magistrate looked down his long nose at her. “Princess, you would be safe.”

“Not with you, I wouldn’t.” Sayce strode through their midst, placing herself between them and Alexia. “You would sell me once the others had not been enough, and then others would sell you.”

The woman pleaded. “The alternative is death.”

“Yes, it is!” The Murosan Princess’ hands rent the air. “What are you not understanding? The Aurolani have come here to destroy us. They swept through Sebcia like a summer storm, and why? What did the Sebcians ever do to Chytrine? Nothing. It is the same with us. We have done nothing to invite this invasion save to have a good nation with stouthearted people who work hard to make the best life they can for themselves and their families.

“Look at yourselves. You wear masks, but do you think you are truly worthy of them? Your ancestors would strip them from your faces, then peel back the flesh beneath them. You have become the very complacent sort of people we overthrew when our ancestors took the mask.”

The duke’s spine stiffened with indignation. “You mistake us.”

“No I do not, not at all, Duke Thow. I see you for what you are. Just as you are willing to sell Princess Alexia or Kerrigan to the Aurolani, claiming it is for the sake of the people, you would sell the people for your own sake. You would count that a suitable price to pay, and would praise those making the sacrifice, but would deem yourselves too important to the nation and the city ever to offer yourselves to the enemy.”

Sayce’s unbridled anger cowed the gang of four. Blood drained from faces and the woman covered her mask with her hands. Her shoulders shook as if she were sobbing, though Alexia thought the gestures exaggerated.

“This is what we are going to do.” Sayce’s lips peeled back in a fierce snarl. “I will guarantee your safety, since you are clearly worried about it. I will have some of my Lancers guard each of you. I assure you that if there is any chance that the enemy would take you, you will be slain and avoid the humiliation of a painful death.”

The magistrate’s eyes widened. “You cannot threaten us with murder!”

“No?” Sayce’s head came up and she crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “Better a threat of murder than a charge of treason. It is your choice. I prefer the latter, since then all your lands will be forfeit to the crown. Your children will be reduced to paupers, but at least they will be alive.”

The duke snorted. “Let the crown have my lands. Chytrine will have them soon enough.”

Alexia stepped forward and laid her left hand on Sayce’s right shoulder. “There you have it, Duke Thow. Chytrine will have your lands, your city, soon enough. The question is how much of a price will she pay for them? You can give them to her and you will get no gratitude in return. Or you can join us in opposing her. If you were to kill one gibberer you would be selling your life more dearly than you could ever imagine, and the price she would be charged would be greater than she will be able to bear.”

The flame-haired princess nodded. “There you have it. Live up to your mask and the fidelity to your nation it demands, or bare your face and slink into obscurity. Better death while free, than an eternity as a slave.”

The four of them—pale and meek—stared blankly.

Sayce pointed to the door. “Be gone.”

They filed out quietly, without a bow or an apology.

Sayce looked at Alexia. “I am mortified for my nation that you witnessed this.”

“You mean witnessing you tame a pack of cowards?” Alexia smiled slightly. “This is a new side of you, one I had not taken into account.”

The smaller woman nodded. “I know, when I arrived in Meredo, that I made a bad impression. You were not what I expected. Will was not. Nothing was what I thought it would be. You have, however, showed me that you are more than I could ever have expected.

“Will did as well, and Crow.” Sayce looked down, and her voice became wistful. “I heard whispers of you all before I came to Meredo. The raid on Wruona. The evacuation from Fortress Draconis. I imagined a band of heroes, but not the way you are. It’s less a band than a family. It hurts you to be apart from Crow, doesn’t it?”

That question surprised Alexia more than the duke’s suggestion. “I don’t like being separated from him, no.”

“He is all right out there, isn’t he?” Sayce glanced sidelong at her. “You would know if he wasn’t, wouldn’t you? Love is like that?”

“I feel I would, yes, and he would know if I were in danger here.”

“I’d know the same about Will.”

Alexia kept her face impassive. Sayce’s comparing her feeling for Will with Alexia’s for Crow made no sense. Sayce might say it to engage Alexia’s sympathies, but to what end? They were both trapped by the same army in the same city, with enemies outside the walls and vipers within. Any differences they could possibly have would be rendered insignificant by their situation.

The only reason that makes sense is…Alexia felt a chill run down her spine. “You really do love him, don’t you?”

The Murosan Princess looked up, then nodded quickly. “My sister was supposed to go to Meredo and seduce Will to get him to come to Muroso. I hated that idea, so I went myself. I was prepared to offer myself to him if need be, but I wanted to convince him to come of his own accord. I thought he would be so different: like his half brother in form, with Resolute’s brash attitudes. He wasn’t any of that. He was quiet and funny—and so very kind when he came and sat with me as I recovered. I hadn’t expected…”

She brushed away a tear, then smiled, though the corners of her mouth quivered. “Listen to me, I sound like a girl with her first crush. But I dream of him, you know, and I worry. The past several mornings I have woken up positively sick. And now that they are heading into Sarengul, I don’t know what to think, what to hope.”

“What to fear.”

Sayce nodded. “That’s the worst.”

“I know.” Alexia slid her left arm over Sayce’s shoulder. “I think we fear what they fear. Yes, never seeing us again, that’s a big one, but greater is dishonoring them with failure. I know Crow won’t let that happen.”

“Will won’t, either.”

“So then that fear is useless.” Alyx hugged her across the shoulders. “As for not seeing them again, well, the only people who will prevent that are the army out there. And that’s good enough reason, as far as I am concerned, for making sure they don’t succeed.”